


Caleb the Latte Boy

by captainquint



Category: Turn (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, M/M, Modern Era
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-01
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-04-29 07:28:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5120075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainquint/pseuds/captainquint
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At that moment, the bell clanged as the door was slammed open. A blur of a blue hoodie came rushing in, skirting around a table but catching his foot on a chair, knocking it to the ground. Quickly glancing around, he spotted the counter where a dumbstruck Caleb stood staring. He rushed behind the counter, ducking down. Caleb grabbed a bottle of caramel syrup from a shelf and held it above his head like a baseball bat, poised to strike.</p><p>“Who the hell are you?!”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> the title is from the song Taylor the Latte Boy (it's very cute and you should listen to it)

     The Strong Coffeehouse was by no means a large establishment. It was a small building tucked into a bustling street near the Yale campus, in the hopes that college kids would come streaming out from classes and pour through the door for a quick pick-me-up. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The bell attached to the top of the door rarely rang, save for a few regulars who had come to love the quiet little shop.

     And Caleb Brewster was slightly less than content. It’s not that he didn’t enjoy working at the Coffeehouse. He was lucky to have landed a job at all. But being long-time friends with the owner does have its perks. A quick nudge to his side shook Caleb from his thoughts.

“Brewster!”

Anna Strong was staring him down, carrying an empty mug in one hand and an order pad in the other.

“You can’t just sit behind the counter eating leftover cookies and trying to take a nap. You do have to work at your job, y’know.”

“Oh, I know. I just had to save myself from the mob that’s currently pushing through our door.” Caleb pointedly looked at the two customers that sat in the mostly vacant café.

“So, it’s a slow day.”

“It’s always a slow day, Annie!”

“That doesn’t mean you’re not still on the clock. And don’t call me Annie.”

She turned and dumped the mug in the sink, walking off to the breakroom.

At that moment, the bell clanged as the door was slammed open. A blur of a blue hoodie came rushing in, skirting around a table but catching his foot on a chair, knocking it to the ground. Quickly glancing around, he spotted the counter where a dumbstruck Caleb stood staring. He rushed behind the counter, ducking down. Caleb grabbed a bottle of caramel syrup from a shelf and held it above his head like a baseball bat, poised to strike.

“Who the hell are you?!”

“I’m not here to rob you and I’m not running from the cops so if you would kindly put the bottle down,” Blue Hoodie said in a hushed tone.

He carefully took a look over the top of the counter. Caleb looked in the same direction, just in time to see a group of frat looking boys stalking down the street, stopping for a moment as if they sensed something.

“Did anyone of you see where Tallmadge went?”

The majority of the group shook their heads. “He up and vanished, Bradford.”

“He’ll have to show his face sooner or later. And when he does, we’ll be there. Let’s go.”

The group was moving again, and Caleb watched as they walked out of the sight line of the café. A quiet voice broke the silence.

“Are they gone?”

It was Blue Hoodie. He was getting to his feet, brushing himself off.

“I’m sorry about my, um, entrance. It was the first door I saw.”

Caleb was able to get a better look at him now. His lip was cut and bleeding, and his eye was beginning to swell.

 _Poor guy must’ve been in a fight_ , Caleb thought to himself.

He placed the bottle back on the shelf.

“Were they looking for you?”

Blue Hoodie nodded, wincing as he wiped some of the blood from his face.

“It’s nothing, had a bit of a misunderstanding. And I wasn’t running from them! I just… needed to regroup for a moment.”

“You work on your story, I’ll be right back,” Caleb turned and walked to the breakroom.

“I heard a crash out there, is everything all right?” asked Anna, taking her lunch break at the tiny table labelled EMPLOYEES ONLY.

“Nothing that I can’t handle,” replied Caleb, wrapping some ice cubes from the freezer in a paper towel, “You take your break.”

Anna eyed him warily as he rooted through the cabinet for the first aid kit, but continued on eating her sandwich.

Caleb walked back out into the main room, hoping Blue Hoodie hadn’t left yet. But there he was, seated at a table and holding a napkin to his lip. Caleb pulled up a chair next to him, setting down the first aid kit.

“So, what’s your name?” Caleb said while holding up the makeshift ice pack.

“Ben.”

At least there was now a name to go with the bruised face. Caleb handed over the ice, opening the first aid kit. Ben squinted at Caleb’s shirt, reading off his employee name tag.

“And you’re… Caleb?”

“Caleb Brewster, the one and only.”

Ben stifled a small laugh.

“There something funny about that?”

“No! No, it wasn’t meant to seem insulting. I just thought, you know, Brewster. Brew-ster. Since you work in a coffee shop.”

Caleb only continued to stare. _He’s lucky that he’s cute._

Ben cleared his throat, turning a bit red at the outcome of his failed joke.

“Anyway, I wanted to say thank you for helping me,” Ben said, adjusting the ice pack against his eye.

“Don’t mention it, you’re the most interesting thing that’s happened here in weeks.”

Caleb took out an antiseptic wipe from the first aid kit, motioning for Ben to lean forward.

“Don’t those sting?” Ben asked hesitantly.

“Nah, you’ll be fine.” Ben shrugged, leaning forward.

The second the wipe hit his cut lip, he hissed and jerked away.

Caleb smirked. “I lied.”

Ben grumbled and leaned forward again, wincing as Caleb finished wiping away the drying blood. When Caleb was done, Ben sat back up in his chair and looked around the café.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been in here before.”

Caleb shrugged as he packed up the first aid kit, “We don’t get much foot traffic.”

“I can tell. And I just want to say-,”

“Before you apologize for the third time in an hour, it’s fine.”

Ben gave a small smile, and opened his mouth to say something as the bell above the door rang.

“Duty calls.” Caleb stood, walking back behind the counter and putting on a smile.

After finishing up with the customer at the counter, Caleb looked back to the table where Ben had been sitting. But he was gone.

Caleb found himself slightly disappointed. He had only gotten a name, and a face that would probably never walk into the small café again. He hadn’t even noticed the bell on the door ring as Ben had left. Something caught his eye. The glass jar labeled TIPS that sat regularly empty at the far end of the counter had a few dollars now lying at the bottom of it. He walked over to the jar and peered in, pulling out a ripped piece of napkin. “THANK YOU” was scrawled across it in pen. Caleb tucked the small note in his pocket and smiled to himself. _Who knows, maybe he will be back._


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoa sorry i haven't updated this in 3 months. promise updates will come sooner in the future

“Jesus, what happened to your face?”

Nathan set down the book he was reading as Ben swung the door to their dorm room open.

“Nothing! Nothing, I’m fine,” Ben said as he pulled the hood of his sweatshirt up over his head.

“You’re _not_ fine, your face looks like it got hit by a truck.”

“Wow, thanks, you always know what to say.”

Ben plopped down on his bed, glaring at Nathan like a petulant 5 year old.

“Please tell me I don’t have to play doctor again,” Nathan sighed. “If I wanted a medical degree, I would’ve gone to Harvard.”

“For your information, I’ve already been taken care of.”

Nathan raised an eyebrow, laughing a little.

“What?” The look of realization dawned on Ben’s face. “Oh, shut up! What are you, twelve?!”

He aimed an empty pop can at Nathan’s head, finding his target with unsurprising accuracy.

“Hey, hey! Watch it!” Nathan laughed as he tried to lean out of the way.

“I can do this all day, Hale. You know I pitched in high school!”

To prove his point, Ben picked up a rolled up sock, winding up his arm.

“All right, all right! It was just a joke. You did it to yourself.”

“I _meant_ that someone had already looked at all the bruises and crap, it’ll be fine.”

“So who was this mysterious nurse that rushed to your aid?” Nathan sat down on Ben’s bed, kicking his feet out of the way.

Ben bit his lip, and then winced, remembering it had recently been bleeding profusely.

“That’s not how it happened. It… it’s a long story.”

“Do I look like I’m doing my homework?”

“Fine, I’ll start from the beginning.”

Ben launched into his story, explaining how he had spotted Will Bradford and his friends shoving around a freshman.

“Bradford did this to you? Ben, you’ve gotta stop picking fights with him.”

“I didn’t pick a fight! This kid, Newt, y’know I’ve seen him around the dining hall. He doesn’t have many friends. Someone needed to stick up for him!”

“Ben, I swear, you’ve got some kind of savior complex.”

“I do _not_ have a savior complex. You’ve been spending too much time with the psych major down the hall.”

“Baker’s a nice guy! If you would just get to know him-“

“Anyway!” Ben threw his hands up. “Back to my story.”

Ben said that he had pulled Bradford off the kid, and that’s when it all happened. Him and his three lackeys had started wailing on Ben, and once they’d let up enough for Ben to get to his feet, the kid was gone. Ben was feeling lightheaded and more than a little nauseous so he did the last thing he possibly wanted to do.

He ran.

“You ran?”

“Oh, don’t sound so condescending. You would’ve done the same thing.”

“ _I_ wouldn’t have picked a fight to begin with.”

Ben ran as far as he could until he had to stop to catch his breath. He looked to his left and ran through the first door he saw, right into a tiny coffee shop.

“And you jumped behind the counter? Because you _wanted_ to seem like you were running from the cops?”

“I’ll admit it wasn’t my best plan. He looked really freaked out.”

“He?”

“Oh, yeah. Caleb.”

Caleb.

That was his name. Ben smiled a little to himself.

“He was working behind the counter. Caleb’s the one who helped clean me up.”

“Was he cute?” Nathan smirked.

Ben groaned and kicked Nathan’s feet.

“I was in pain, I was not paying attention to how cute he was.”

“So he was cute?”

“That’s not what I said.”

“You should go see him again. Maybe when all this,” Nathan gestured to Ben’s face, “calms down.”

“I’m not going to see him again. He probably thinks wherever I go, trouble follows.”

***

It had been a week and Ben still hadn’t come back to the café.

Ben.

That was his name. Caleb smiled a little to himself.

Of course, Ben had no reason to come back to the café. That is unless he wanted some pretty damn good coffee (if Caleb did say so himself.)

“Just staring at the door isn’t going to make him walk back in,” Anna piped up from the corner of the café. She kept rearranging flowers on a table that no one had sat at in about three hours.

“You know, I should’ve never told you about him.”

“Cinderella?”

That’s what Anna had taken to calling him.

“Your mysterious gentleman caller who left without so much as a goodbye or even a shoe?”

“He was not a _gentleman caller_ , Tennessee Williams, he practically fell in here. No, he _did_ fall in here.”

Anna crumpled up a flower and threw it at Caleb.

“Don’t you believe in fate? In events happening because the universe wanted them to?”

“I believe in uppity college boys picking fights about whose private high school was more expensive. And said boys hiding out here.”

“You’re just deflecting, Brewster, I can read you like a book.”

“I’m not deflecting, Anna, I talked to that guy for like 10 minutes. It’s nothing, I don’t even remember his name.”

That was a lie.

Caleb just wished it wasn’t. He wished he could just forget about the whole thing, because it kept gnawing at the back of his mind.

“Can we just close already? No one’s going to come in the next hour.”

Anna sighed, but conceded. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and moved toward the door to flip the “OPEN” sign to “CLOSED”.

But before she had the chance to, the bell above the door rang.

Caleb snapped his head up, and he struggled to fight down a smile.

“Hey, sorry. You guys aren’t closed yet, are you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ben as a baseball pitcher in high school is a reference to rae iboatedhere's fic meet me under the bleachers (go read it)


	3. Chapter 3

Anna stopped short as Ben walked through the door.

“Oh! No, we’re not closed yet. I’ll just head back behind the counter, you can order when you’re ready.”

“I’m actually here to talk to…” Ben gestured in Caleb’s general direction.

Anna’s eyes widened as she realized exactly who had just dropped in.

Caleb raised an eyebrow, wiping off a table that was probably already clean. “If you want to talk, you’ll have to buy something.”

Ben stood still for a moment, then began rooting around for his wallet.

“Whoa, hey!” Caleb laughed as he took a step towards Ben. “That was just a joke.”

Ben stopped and looked up, letting out a small laugh. “Bad joke for bad joke?” he said, thinking of his own cringe-worthy pun from a week prior.

Now it was Caleb’s turn to laugh. “Yeah, yeah, I admit it wasn’t my best. But hey, you’re still welcome to buy something if you want.”

“Just a black coffee?” Ben looked to Anna. “Sorry, a black coffee, please.”

Anna gave Caleb a look as if to say “ _Manners, too._ ” as she went to grab a mug. Caleb rolled his eyes, pointedly ignoring her.

“Your face is looking better,” Caleb said, pulling out a chair to sit down.

“Yeah, the swelling’s gone down. I can actually see out of my eye now.”

Ben shrugged and tucked a strand of hair that had fallen out of his messy ponytail behind his ear. Caleb thought he actually looked… nervous.

“So, why’re you here?” Caleb hated how defensive that sounded, but frankly, he did really want to know why Ben was here.

“I, um, forgot,” Ben started.

“You forgot why you came here?”

“No! I meant to say I forgot my watch when I was here. It must have fallen off when I rushed in, and I was hoping you might’ve found it?”

Caleb sighed. Of course.

“I haven’t seen anything, but I’ll check the Lost and Found in the back.”

Ben nodded, rubbing his wrist. “Much appreciated.”

Caleb stood and headed toward the back room, passing Anna who was emerging from behind the counter with Ben’s coffee. “He lost his watch,” Caleb grumbled. Anna squeezed his shoulder and made a sympathetic noise. A few minutes later, he returned from the back room, making his way back over to Ben.

“Well, there were two mismatched gloves, a textbook, and a phone charger…but no watch. Sorry to disappoint.”

Ben was sipping his coffee, chatting amicably with Anna. He looked up at Caleb, a moment of confusion passing over his face, almost like he had forgotten he had asked Caleb to go look in the first place. “The watch? Right, the watch! It’s no big deal, but thank you for checking.”

“Not a problem…” Ben downed the last of his coffee in about two gulps, then handed some crumpled dollar bills to Anna. “Well, I really should be going. Keep the change, it’s fine.” He nodded to Anna, then to Caleb and briskly walked out the door.

Caleb cocked his head slightly, still not entirely sure what had just happened.

***

Ben’s cheeks were burning his entire walk back to the dorms.

They were slightly less red when Nathan met him in the dining hall for dinner later that evening.

“So…” Nathan wiggled his eyebrows.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Ben said in between shoveling mashed potatoes into his mouth.

“That bad, huh?”

“I told him that I lost my watch.”

Nathan choked on his water bottle, spluttering a bit as he laughed.

“It’s not funny!”

“Ben, you don’t even own a watch!”

Ben held up his watch-less wrist. “You think I don’t know that?”

“And I thought you thrived under pressure.”

Ben groaned, shaking his head. “What was I supposed so say? ‘Oh, hey, remember me? I crashed through your door about a week ago? Well, you seemed nice enough so I decided to stop in and say hi.’”

“That is exactly what you could’ve said.”

“Don’t sass me, I’m not in the mood.”

“Who’s getting sassed?” Abe asked as he slid into the seat next to Nathan, biting an apple.

“I am,” Ben clarified, now working on a bowl of chicken noodle soup.

“Ben’s just grumpy ‘cause he’s terrible at romance,” Nathan stage whispered to Abe, who proceeded to stifle a laugh.

“You two are insufferable.”

“Me?” Abe gasped incredulously, “I just sat down!”

“Mhm,” Ben pointed to Abe with his spoon, “probably because you were out flirting with that guy who works at the library.”

Abe flushed almost as red as the apple he was holding.

Ben grinned, shrugging his shoulders innocently. “Or I guess it’s not so much flirting as it is aggressive staring.”

“Don’t let him get to you, Abe,” Nathan patted Abe’s shoulder, “he’s just jealous that your… thing… with Robert can even be called a thing.”

“So who is this guy anyway?” Abe asked, hoping to take the attention off himself.

“It’s not like that, really,” Ben sighed, “he was just some guy I ran into and I’ve already fucked it up so can we please not talk about it?”

Nathan frowned slightly, feeling a pang of pity for his best friend. “I won’t bring it up again if you give it one more shot.”

Ben nodded, agreeing halfheartedly. “One more shot, that’s it.”

After class the next day, Ben packed up his books and his laptop. Taking a deep breath, he slung his backpack over his shoulder and started toward the Strong Coffeehouse.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you know how i said i wouldn't leave months between updates? well i lied. and im sorry this is so short but i wanted to at least put something up

When Ben walked through the door of the Strong Coffeehouse, he was greeted by an unusual sight.

It was busy.

A growing line of patrons was waiting by the counter while others chatted around tables. Ben sighed and wove his way through the small crowd toward the counter, trying to keep an eye out for Caleb, or even the woman he met the other day. Anna? He thought he remembered that on her name tag. But Ben couldn’t seem to spot either of them behind the counter. The only person he could see was a short flustered woman hurriedly taking customers’ orders.

She scribbled down a name on a cup, then looked to Ben with her brow slowly knitting together.

“Can I help you? If you’re ordering, the line starts back there.”

“No, I’m looking for Caleb. Is he here?”

“I wish,” the woman snorted, turning to take another order. “Give me a minute, would you?”

Ben nodded and took a seat at an unoccupied table. How could he have been this stupid? Of course Caleb wouldn’t be here right now. It’s not like Ben was aware of his shift schedule, he had just been lucky to catch him the first time. This had been a bad idea. He didn’t care how many little jokes Nathan would make about this, he wanted to leave before he embarrassed himself any more.

“Hey, Caleb’s friend?”

Ben snapped out of his quickly spiraling train of thought to see the woman standing in front of him, holding a tupperware container and a folded piece of paper. The line had dissipated and she had made her way over from the counter.

“Sorry, what?”

“You were looking for Caleb. You’re his friend, right?”

Ben twisted at his wrist, searching for the right way to answer the question.

“We’re more like… vague acquaintances.”

The woman shook her head. “Either way, Caleb was supposed to be here helping me today, but he called out sick. I didn’t think we were going to be this busy, so I made him some soup to help. But now since we’re swamped, I can’t go give it to him. And I was wondering,” she handed the tupperware container off to Ben, “could you drop it by his place for me?”

Ben opened his mouth to reply, then shut it again. He drummed his fingers over the top of the container, thinking of the most polite ways decline.

Wait.

Why was he wanting to say no?

Hadn’t he come here to find Caleb in the first place?

Ben glanced back to the woman, nodded his head, and said, “Sure, I don’t mind. Whatever I can do to help.”

She smiled and pulled a napkin from the table, scribbling something down in pen. “Here is his address, tell him Abby sent you. And thank you, you’re doing me a huge favor.”

He waved goodbye and headed back out the door, punching Caleb’s address into his phone. The apartment complex was only a short bus ride away, and soon enough he was standing in front of New Haven Apartments. He took another quick look down at the napkin note and headed in.

The elevator ride was terrifying.

It jerked three times, nearly stopped twice, and Ben swore on his life that he saw the lights flicker. When the ding sounded and the sliding doors opened, Ben scrambled out and down the hall. He scanned the walls for the right number (1580) before stopping in front of a door with what appeared to be a sizable kicked-in dent in the lower corner.

He took a breath and knocked lightly.

A strained voice called from inside the apartment, “Who is it?”

Ben cleared his throat, “Uh, it’s Ben. From the coffeeshop?”

He heard weight shuffling and a suspicious thump before the door was swung open, revealing a very tired and disheveled looking Caleb Brewster.

“Are you stalking me?”

“What? No! I’m not-“

“Because once is chance, twice is coincidence, but now this is just creepy.”

“I’m not stalking you, Caleb-“

“How did you know where I live?”

“Can you just let me speak for two seconds please?!”

Caleb fell silent, looking at him suspiciously. One hand was still on the door in case he needed to shut it quickly.

“I was down at the coffeeshop and your coworker, Abby, said you were sick. She made you soup but she was too busy to bring it over, and she asked me to do it.  
That’s how I know where you live.”

Caleb raised an eyebrow, then looked down at the container of soup in Ben’s hand.

“Fine, your story checks out for now.”

Caleb took the container from Ben and retreated back into his apartment, leaving the door open. Ben bounced back and forth on his feet, glancing around.

“So, I guess I’ll just be leaving-“

“You wanna come in?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, unless you’ve got someplace to be. You’re standing there is a bit pathetic.”

Ben took one step in, and then another.

“Yeah, I guess I’ll stay for a bit.”


End file.
